Hang Seng rises for 7 weeks in a row, hits record high

Jan 26 (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s benchmark index Hang Seng ended Friday at a record high, capping its seventh week of gains, amid optimism toward global economic recovery and accelerated money inflows from mainland China. ** At close of trade, the Hang Seng index was up 499.67 points or 1.53 percent at 33,154.12. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index rose 2.51 percent to 13,723.96. **The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking energy shares dipped 0.3 percent while the IT sector rose 2.37 percent, the financial sector was 2.22 percent higher and property sector rose 1.27 percent. ** The top gainer on Hang Seng was China Construction Bank Corp , up 6.07 percent, while the biggest loser was Lenovo Group Ltd, which was down 1.27 percent. ** China’s main Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.3 percent at 3,559.0875 points while its blue-chip CSI300 index ended up 0.39 percent. ** Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.48 percent while Japan’s Nikkei index closed down 0.16 percent . ** The yuan was quoted at 6.3184 per U.S. dollar at 08:17 GMT, 0.21 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.3315. ** As of the previous trading session, the Hang Seng index was up 9.14 percent this year, while China’s H-share index was up 14.3 percent. As of the previous close, the Hang Seng has risen 9.14 percent this month. ** The top gainers among H-shares were Postal Savings Bank of China Co Ltd up 6.41 percent, followed by China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd gaining 6.38 percent and China Construction Bank Corp up by 6.07 percent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Sinopharm Group Co Ltd, which was down 0.74 percent, Great Wall Motor Co Ltd which fell 0.4 percent and CRRC Corp Ltd down by 0.4 percent. ** About 4.01 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 179.7 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 2.23 billion shares a day. The volume traded in the previous trading session was 3.56 billion. ** At close, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 28.36 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Hang Seng index was 14.9 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.7 percent. (Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Sam Holmes)